In the hunt … Idris Elba, pictured in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, is lining up to play the tiger Shere Khan in a Jungle Book remake. Photograph: Keith Bernstein

Idris Elba is in final talks to provide the gruff yet mellifluous tones of the tiger Shere Khan in Disney's remake of classic animation The Jungle Book, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Iron Man director Jon Favreau's live-action/CGI take on Rudyard Kipling's 1894 fable is one of two competing versions proposed by Hollywood. Rival studio Warner Bros has tapped Oscar-winner Ron Howard to direct a separate project based on a screenplay by Harry Potter stalwart Steve Kloves.

Disney is also said to be looking for a mixed-race actor to play Mowgli, the boy raised by wolves in the jungles of central India. The studio will focus on the Kipling story Mowgli's Brothers. Other fables by the writer, such as the story of heroic mongoose Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and the tale of elephant handler Toomai, are likely once again to be ignored.

Disney's own 1967 animated musical, featuring the voice of George Sanders as Shere Khan, is the most famous on-screen incarnation of The Jungle Book. Lesser-known, live-action versions were also made in 1942 and 1994.

Elba recently received excellent reviews for his portrayal of Nelson Mandela in Justin Chadwick's Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. The Hackney-born actor also has crime thriller No Good Deed and thriller The Gunman due in cinemas this year.